Fox & Friends Applaud Romney’s ’47 Percent’ Comments

While many American jaws dropped over revelations of Mitt Romney’s disdain for half of America, Fox & Friends’ Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade stood by their man. “I would love for that to be a message for any candidate on the stump,” Kilmeade said, to an approving Doocy.

Here’s what Romney said at a fundraiser in May, as reported by Mother Jones yesterday:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

…[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Romney was so cognizant of the potential political damage that he hastily scheduled a press conference late last night where he “clarified” his comments by essentially doubling down on them.

Calling half of America mooching slackers? What’s not to like if you’re a Fox & Friends host and the comments were made by a Republican about Democrats? After all, it’s not as if a Democrat (like, say, Barack Obama) said that some people in small towns in Pennsylvania get “bitter” over the loss of economic opportunity and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

THAT was worth nearlynon-stopoutrage on Fox News. But in this segment, a chyron read: "ROMNEY GETS REAL: Political stumble or cold-hard truth?" You didn’t need to wait long for the answer.

“I would love for that to be a message for any candidate on the stump,” Kilmeade said. “Because if you talk about making tough decisions from here on in, when you talk about entitlements for every one dollar in tax money we owe three (Doocy said, “right,”), we’re gonna have to make some really tough decisions. And if people in their lives aren’t going to do everything they can to understand that we can’t afford to pay housing, health care, food and everything else for people – and for college! It’s not going to be possible! Why can’t a leader put that forward?”

Doocy chimed in: “Besides, when you look at what Mitt Romney just said - politically, what’s the matter with it? …Politically, he’s right. He can’t count on them. He can’t worry about them showing up to the polls.”

Gretchen Carlson was the lone sort-of-differing opinion. She said, “People are going to pounce on” the last two lines, “to say that he doesn’t connect with the middle class and that he doesn’t really get it.”

But Doocy, pardon the expression, stuck to his guns. “When you look at his comments through the prism of politics. Remember, he’s a politician in front of a group at a fundraiser in Boca a couple of months ago. It all makes sense. They’re going to try to spin it the other way. But it is all explainable from his side.”

@Spacegod: As a person from a working class cum dirt farmer class, I don’t agree that this is a non-issue. Romney said flat out that the 47% who do not pay federal income taxes are on the government’s teat. And his latest “explanations” serve only to prove how mis-informed he was then: 40% of that 47% are retirees who actually tend to vote Republican. Kinda hard to get one’s foot deeper into one’s mouth.

In any case, I believe that the release of such videos is protected by the First Amendment… or not?

Was it really a surveillance video and not one of those telephony gadgets that take pictures?

And Brian, as usual, hits the nail right on the head— perfectly, expertly, and stupidly—by reminding us this whole non-issue was only because of the surveillance videos that shouldn’t have been allowed in there."

And Brian, as usual, hits the nail right on the head— perfectly, expertly, and stupidly—by reminding us this whole non-issue was only because of the surveillance videos that shouldn’t have been allowed in there."

@Bemused: You name just about any tax America has, with the exception of the estate tax… and who does it favour?

Certainly not the rich- they pay less and get more back. In fact, the estate tax is the only one I can think of where the rich get to know how we feel. And even then, not really if they got a good enough accountant.

@Richard: that means most people who are fairly well off pay a smaller percentage of their income than others? Gosh!

@Thx4 Fish: I’d forgotten about sales taxes. Are they levied on food and basic needs (clothing, shoes, drugs, toothpaste, etc.)? If the answer is yes, those are perfect examples of indirect taxes that hit the less well off a lot harder than the better off.

I don’t believe that this shocking revelation into the mind of Romney will have any effect on the election. This is how these people really think, and just like vis55 says, many of his ‘base’ is either too stupid or too ignorant to realize that they are part of that 47% Romney doesn’t care about.

I thought it was typical how they showed two e-mails from viewers, who both were in support of Romneyâs comment. Imagine that. Very fair and balanced of them, wasnât it? But keep those e-mails coming in folks, but if you expect us to put it on the air, just make damn sure it puts Mitt in a positive light.

Many of the 47% can thank the Bush tax cuts for relieving them of paying federal income taxes. Nice of the Republicans to give them this ‘gift’ then call them names for it-when the 47% had nothing to do with deciding the tax cut.

But since the federal government is collecting less taxes and doing less for people, the local governments are collecting more and doing more. The rate of taxes paid over all groups is fairly even its just divided differently into sales tax, property tax, state income tax and federal income tax. So the idea of freeloaders is simply red meat for the wing nuts. This is a chart that spells it out clearlyhttp://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2011.pdf

They (F&F) must being getting tired of waking up each day to clean up Mittâs messes from the previous day, when they just want to concentrate on their daily Obama bashing programming. Eventually theyâre going to accept the reality and realize they have a weak candidate who canât stop stepping in it. Iâm not counting my chickens yet with seven weeks to go, but I sure do wish today was election day.

When MagicUnderwear Mitt speaks off-the-cuff, he invariably drops another turd into the party punchbowl. This clown is totally disconnected from anyone outside of the top 1 percent. Even more ominous is his constant warmongering toward all Mideast nations not named Israel.